Is This Why Mall Stores Are So Cold?

With spring finally here, shoppers are hitting the stores to purchase seasonal items — sandals, bikinis, tank tops, and shorts. However, with the frigid temperatures often blowing through their favorite stores, they might even be inclined to add a coat to that list. As any frequent shopper knows, a quick stroll through your favorite store could result in chilled fingertips while thumbing through racks of clothing. While many might not let the chill stop them from filling their carts, it turns out that there might be a reason why stores at the mall are so cold.

According to Complex, a book titled The Bling Dynasty: Why the Reign of Chinese Luxury Shoppers Has Only Begun discusses this uncomfortable and frigid occurrence we encounter on our weekend shopping trips. Apparently, freezing is luxurious. The author writes that the cold "is a sign of wealth," and that shoppers in Hong Kong bring along an "indoor jacket," specifically to keep them warm while perusing the season's latest fashions — regardless of whether that season is summer, winter, spring, or fall.

Signs of wealth go far beyond the shopping mall, however, as Complex also reports that malls in Hong Kong take up 30 percent of the city's energy use in the winter and 60 percent in the summer. Clearly, maintaining luxury and sustainability is still proving to be a difficult task.

The United States, however, is attempting to take steps toward making shoppers' experiences warmer and more welcoming. Refinery29 reports that the famed Mall of America in Minnesota uses solar energy to keep its temperatures at 70 degrees all year round and New York City passed a law that requires stores to keep their doors closed while using air conditioning. Perhaps as time goes on and innovation grows it will be commonplace to try on a swimsuit or sandals in a room that changes to the appropriate temperature of an island beach. But then, of course, stores might have a hard time getting customers to leave.

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